Castle School awarded Quality Mark Award for the fourth time
At the end of the winter term, The Castle School, a specialist school for children with learning difficulties, was awarded the Quality Mark Award for the fourth time by The Alliance for Lifelong Learning, which celebrates and supports continuous improvement in literacy and numeracy.
Assessors from the alliance spent a day at the school, during which time they interviewed staff, pupils, parents and governors and assessed how the school helped pupils’ development of basic skills, how data was analysed and targets set and the use of different teaching approaches.
Following the news, headteacher Jon Hewitt said: “The award is very important to us as a school as it recognises that we have very high aspirations of everyone in our school community to achieve the very best outcomes for all our young people.
“We are very proud...it highlights all the amazing work that our staff and pupils do to help improve the lives of our young people.
“It means a great deal and is recognition of what our students have achieved so far.
“Now we want to build on this and go for the award for a fifth time in three years.”
Adding to the achievements, Mr Hewitt was last week informed that his fundraising feat which saw him embark on a 200-mile cycle from Donnington to Paris had ranked in the top two per cent in JustGiving fundraising nationally.
The challenge, in April, raised £3,280 towards the building of an outside woodland learning area at the school.
He said: “It has enabled us to get proper plans in place and we are nearly ready to start the main build – which is very exciting and will hopefully be completed by September for all our pupils to enjoy.
“It is amazing that we managed to raise so much, and it is down to the incredible generosity of the community that we were able to do so.”
However, the funds will not cover the whole of the project, and anyone wishing to donate can still do so by calling the school on (01635) 42976.